The war which the Islamic state in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) has started in northern Iraq, the subsequent human tragedy in Sinjar, and threat to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have alarmed the West the United States in particular, to introduce an overall change in policy towards Iraq and the KRG. This war is likely to have several consequences. Firstly, we can anticipate a reversal in ISIS’s efforts to reduce Shiite hegemony in Baghdad and its retreat to the Syrian theatre. Secondly, the Kurds will be emboldened to ask for independence and there will be a more sympathetic stand by the Obama administration and the EU to support it. Thirdly, the escalated tension between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and PKK to the level of an intra-Kurdish war will continue to destabilize political processes in Northern Iraq.

* Dr. Othman Ali is Professor of Modern History of Kurds at Salahaddin University in Erbil.